Maury County Mayoral Candidate Sheila Butt Talks Passing Legislation Into Law and Accountability

Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed former state representative Sheila Butt in-studio to discuss legislation she passed during her time as a state representative and the lack of accountability for upholding the laws.

Leahy: We are in studio with our very good friend Sheila Butt. Sheila, good morning. How you doing?

Butt: Good morning. Great. It’s a fabulous morning out there. A little bit cooler. It’s great out there today.

Leahy: A little bit cooler. You got that right. So you, we’ve known each other other for a long time. You actually were the state representative from Maury County for a long time.

Butt: Yes.

Leahy: And when were you first elected, and how long did you serve?

Butt: I was first elected in 2010, and I served for eight years. As a matter of fact, our little group in Maury County in about 2008 was the Tea Party.

Leahy: Oh, yeah.

Butt: We were doing all the Tea Party things and having just a great time as We the People. And then we realized that, hey, if we’re going to get people in office who will stand up for foundational American values, we’re going to have to run as Republicans or Democrats.

And so our little group of Team Sheila, decided that we would just start getting involved in the Republican Party, working with the Party, and eventually they became the officers in the Party, and I ran for state representative.

Leahy: Now, Maury County was Democrat for some time, wasn’t it?

Butt: Oh, for years, yes. Actually, until then, of course, you know our whole state since the Civil War was Democrat for over 100 years, and Maury County was right there.

Leahy: Now, so tell us about your time as a state representative.

Butt: I absolutely enjoyed my time as a state representative. I went there the first year and I decided I would be quiet and learn and listen. I didn’t really go there to make a lot of laws. I honestly believe we have plenty of laws in the United States of America, laws that aren’t even being followed.

As a matter of fact, I passed a cursive writing bill, thinking that – I was standing there one day in front of the Emancipation Proclamation, and guess what? I could read that because it was in cursive writing.

And I happened to think that our high school students, when I would have my petition signed to run for office, couldn’t even write their name in cursive. They couldn’t read or write cursive.

So when you’re looking at our foundational documents, if you can’t read cursive, how easy is that to change a word or two or three on the internet? Just change the wording a little bit, change [to a] a whole different meaning.

So I thought, our educated young people need to learn to read and write cursive writing. So I passed that legislation. Eighty-five percent of the people in Tennessee wanted that legislation.

But I could tell you right now that probably less than half of the schools in Tennessee are teaching cursive writing, even with a law like that in place.

Leahy: Now, that’s a very interesting point. So you pass a law that says you got to write cursive. Why is it that half of the public schools in Tennessee are not following that law?

Butt: They’re not following that law because they’ve got to teach to the standardized tests. They have to keep their scores up. They want the school scores up. And so there’s not enough time in the day, they don’t feel like, to teach something like cursive writing.

Leahy: But it’s a law.

Butt: It’s a law. But as you and I both know, lots of laws are not followed. When I was in the State House, the representatives from Memphis asked us to pass legislation that the school children in Memphis and Shelby County schools had to pull up their pants. (Leahy laughs) We passed legislation that they had to pull up their pants.

Leahy: So this was like when they all had the droopy pants, and they looked kind of like idiots.

Butt: And I have asked people in Shelby County if that law is working, and I don’t believe that it is.

Leahy: So, is there a role for the state legislature in oversight? This has been one of my pet peeves. The cursive law is one of them. But then also studying the Constitution … I know for a fact that they’re not studying the Constitution the way that the law says they should.

Butt: That’s right. Because there is no repercussion if you don’t. There’s no clawback if you don’t. So you can pass all kinds of legislation, but unless there’s something in there that costs something if you don’t do it, then it’s not going to make much difference.

Leahy: We’ll talk about your race for mayor of Maury County when we get back.

Listen to the interview:

– – –

Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.